Using trailers for game advertisements

Rant ON:

It annoys me to no end that it is considered status quo for game companies to use cut scenes to advertise their new games. I realize this trend isn't anything new at all, but it's rather deceptive. Sure, the trailers make everything look unbelievably exciting, but there should be a disclaimer in giant letters that "yeah, the gameplay is NOTHING like this" in 99 out of 100 cases.

I had the same issue years ago with magazines and sites posting screenshots of games in previews. Yes, that looks incredibly crisp, but you realize that it was shot with everything cranked up, and it's not going to look anything like that on your average computer at an acceptable framerate, right? (this is less of an issue now, since PC tech seems to have very much caught up with what developers are churning out).

Anyone else get annoyed by this?

Rant OFF.

Benevolence is a luxury for the strong - Wrathion
Plox. I got your plox right fucking here. - Animalhouse
I still prefer seeing Thrall rather than blood in my urine, that doesnt make him a good character. - Verdugo

Advertisements are just that, advertisements. This isn't just limited to gaming - look at food adverts. Their goal is to make you interested in the game and they accomplish that. Game play videos tend to be rather bland in my opinion and can often be just as deceptive. You should always demo or trial a game before buying it if you're not sure you're interested.

If it airs on the TV here in the UK there has to be a visible small print saying "not in game footage", if it's not in game footage due to the potential for complaints if people end up watching this amazing cinematic on their TV and thinking that's the gameplay. I think that if you're a discerning gamer you'll probably not order until there is some gameplay footage available. These days for a great deal of PC games quite a lot of review copies go out and you can find footage on youtube, sometimes not until release day though. To counter the fact that more and more PC gamers are waiting for videos/reviewers before buying, more and more PC games are offering tempting pre-order bonuses. I do get the complaint though, I'm sure it has misled some people.

Magazines and sites posting screenshots at max graphics I do not get your complaint for though - there is a massive range of graphic options in any modern PC game that you can tailor to the performance that your PC can look at. Of course professionals are going to show the very best that the game can produce - if you can't replicate that due to you not having the right machinery, that's entirely your fault, and not the games. Reviewers should be looking at the very best the game can offer; not trying to somehow figure out what "average" settings would be (pretty impossible considering the amount of versatility out there in setups and budgets).

I don't see the problem. In this day and age you can find gameplay videos easily. If a commercial sparks your interest Google it and see what the game really looks like.

I mourn the loss of a man of true vision and talent. You were my idol, Mr. Giger.
You gave faces to my dreams and nightmares and sparked my imagination throughout my entire life. You will be missed.Hans Rudolf Giger
2/5/1940 - 5/12/2014

Hah, this totally makes me think of The Elder Scrolls Online cg trailer. The beginning was fine but once they got to the absolutely retarded super saiyan ezio auditore drizz't do'urden super human ranger that made me laugh. As if any of that nonsense is indicative of ANY of the Elder Scrolls games.

Hah, this totally makes me think of The Elder Scrolls Online cg trailer. The beginning was fine but once they got to the absolutely retarded super saiyan ezio auditore drizz't do'urden super human ranger that made me laugh. As if any of that nonsense is indicative of ANY of the Elder Scrolls games.

Seeing the MoP commercial prior to The Hobbit in theaters made me think of it. I get that you always want your best presentation going on in ads, but this is sort of like GM showing you the Corvette in an ad for the Sonic. Yeah, they both have 4 wheels, but.....

Just bitching for the sake of it, I suppose

Benevolence is a luxury for the strong - Wrathion
Plox. I got your plox right fucking here. - Animalhouse
I still prefer seeing Thrall rather than blood in my urine, that doesnt make him a good character. - Verdugo

Well some games use ingame cutscenes for trailers. I personally dont see anything wrong with using high graphics and CGI to market your game. Everyone whos Anyone knows games just dont look like that nowadays least of all MMO's. Now some games are getting closer with their CGI and their in game Graphics which is good. But ppl dont buy games thinking what they see in the trailer is what they will experience when they play. If that was the case alot more games would be returned the day of purchase. Doesnt take too long to figure out what you saw on a TV commerical is not matching what your seeing on your Xbox360.

Gamers know what the graphics of the game they are buying look like and if they didnt before they went to the store to pick it up they could easily tell by flipping over the box and looking at the pictures on the back.

Well, most games usually have more then one trailer. One will be the hype inducing introduction trailer that they would show off in places like E3, getting people excited as the next big thing is announced. Then they'll usually show gameplay on displays. Sometimes they'll also release a gameplay trailer that shows you what new things they are bringing to the table.

Depending on the game, sometimes there will be a youtuber who gets early access to it, showing off the game on their channel to show what the gameplay will be like. Either that, or you can just wait untill the game comes out and people post their own footage online.

I just tell myself "7/10 would watch movie" I like them because i can see how far along CGI has come. But it is annoying a bit that they show no gameplay at all. The theatrical trailers can cause overhype too, sadly

As shamanic pointed out, on the UK some AD's might get out of the air due to false advertising, happened to a Wii-U ad that was displaying Zombie-U on the on-screen control (which the game doesn't have) but it was just a way to show the "availability to take the control anywhere you wanted", it even showed other games, but because it showed Zombie-U it "could leave to improper propaganda" or something like that.

To bad War z wasn't slated to come out til this fall, and the product sold got you into alpha/beta. To bad many people didn't bother to read before going ZOMG its out.

"To" bad steam didn't state that, it was even sold as a full game, and it's even a mod of an older game, should I add all the features that weren't in the game when it got publitized and the controversy sorrounding that false advertising which lead to steam taking the game down and giving back money as a prime example of false advertising?

Really poor choice of example here. WarZ case is an exception, not the rule. It was just a scam, and as I already told, if you'd been circumspective enough, you would be able to tell this coming long before the game was available for purchase. And a lot of people did. You just shouldn't be lazy when it comes to finding information about the things that interest you.

Seeing the MoP commercial prior to The Hobbit in theaters made me think of it.

Well, Chen Stormstout is like the... Gandalf... of Pandaren. Though Blizzard cinematics do indeed seem to glorify the block stat....

But I do agree that cinematics are deceptive. But hey, they're usually pretty damn awesome too. I'd think most people that would play the game for game play would check out actual game play footage and reviews, while anyone that would play a game simply for its cinematic would likely never play it if all they saw was gameplay footage. So... that's something.

"Do not look down, my friend. Even in the darkest of times, there is always hope... Hope for a better day, hope for a new dawn... Or just hope for a good breakfast. You start small, then see what you can get." ~ Covetous Shen